City submits comments about Dow's dioxin plans

As plans move ahead to investigate, and eventually resolve, the local dioxin contamination problem, the City of Midland wants to make sure that its residents aren't pressured to participate in soil sampling, and that if they agree to give access to their property, they are fully informed about how the samples will be used and what their obligations could be.

Attorneys retained by the city for their environmental law expertise penned comments about The Dow Chemical Co.'s remedial investigation work plans and submitted them to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality last week.

Because both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and DEQ labeled Dow's state-mandated plans unacceptable prior to the date that public comments were due, the City of Midland's comments are intended to apply to the finished, approved plan. Dow must resubmit its plans to the DEQ by May 2.

City Manager Karl Tomion said the plans and decisions made about the dioxin situation could have a big impact on the City of Midland. Dow is proposing a Midland soil sampling plan that includes a selection of parcels within a three-mile northeasterly radius from its plant, an area that includes more than 9,000 residences and has a population of more than 21,000.

City officials have been taking an active role in protecting citizen and property owner interests as Dow and the DEQ negotiate remedies.

In its comments, the city asks that property owners who take part in sampling be told what chemical compounds could be included in testing, and what actions could be taken at what levels, based on results. It also asks that Dow be required to restore property to original or better condition following sampling.

The soil sampling program proposed in Dow's work plans is multi-purpose - initial testing would be used for a bioavailability study under way by the University of Missouri to determine how much dioxin in soil is absorbed by people who ingest it. Results could be used to adjust the state's existing residential contact criteria for dioxin, which is 90 parts per trillion.

A second round of sampling would be used to accommodate operating license requirements that the company must determine how far from the plant dioxin has been distributed and if any other chemical compounds are present.

In its comments about the proposed plans, the City of Midland on behalf of its citizens requests that Dow gather soil samples during a single visit, rather than returning to properties to collect soil for the variety of studies it will perform.

Specifics on the soil testing are in flux until work plans are resubmitted and approved, but both Dow and the DEQ have suggested a Midland sampling program that detaches test results from specific parcels, protecting property owners from being subject to disclosure and other laws until a decision on what remediation actions, if any, will be taken.

That's exactly what the city wants. A reattachment of sample to parcel would only take place in the case that dioxin levels exceed the federally prescribed action level of 1,000 parts per trillion. Based on previous testing, however, dioxin levels in Midland soils outside of the Dow plant fenceline are expected to be around the 200 part per trillion-range and lower.

"100 parts per trillion - that's not a surprise," City Manager Karl Tomion said. "And that is not an immediate health threat."

At a thousand parts per trillion, the city would expect some action to to keep residents from exposure. "We would want to address that because there would be health consequences for the property owner," Tomion said. He adds that the city is especially interested in the results of the bioavailability study, and the human exposure study underway by the University of Michigan, with results due later this year.

"We don't want to make large areas of Midland a "facility" if that's not necessary," Tomion said. It's under the facility designation, part of Michigan law, that property owners would have to disclose known information about contamination. The label could have a negative impact on property values.

The city suggests that property owners only be notified of results lower than 1,000 parts per trillion by request. They also want requests kept confidential.

And while city officials are pleased with the double-blinded sampling proposal, until a final plan is approved, they remain unwilling to offer a recommendations to property owners about personal participation in the sampling, which is voluntary.

"It will depend on what is decided," Tomion said. DEQ officials have agreed to meet with and explain the final sampling plan to city officials before final approval takes place.

"We're looking for the City of Midland to be a partner in this, so we're hoping that whatever final work plans get approved are agreeable by the city," said DEQ spokesman Bob McCann.

Tomion said the city is looking forward to a resolution to the decades-long dioxin issue. "We want this to move ahead," he said. "The longer this drags out, the longer it stigmatizes Midland."

Part of Tomion's concern about stigma is based on what he believes is a public misperception about regional contamination. As Dow and the DEQ move forward with remediation plans, much of the focus has been on the Tittabawassee River and its flood plain, where dioxin and furan levels exist in much higher levels. Tests have shown levels as high as 8,000 ppt in the Tittabawassee River and 17,000 ppt in the Saginaw River.

In Midland, however, dioxin contamination is not a result of historic river disposal and is not continually redistributed by river activity. Instead, the particles came from historical incineration practices that spread dioxin by air from the Midland Dow plant. It settled in the top layer of soil.

"The problem in the city compared with the flood plain is minuscule," DEQ Deputy Director Jim Sygo said at a meeting last month.